I’ve been hearing a lot of attacks on the Beirut Marathon in the last couple of days, and how it’s portraying a fake image of Beirut and it’s a waste of money. A lot of people were complaining about the fees as well (40,000 LL for the fun run) saying that it’s a rip off and should be free. To be honest, 40,000 LL is indeed expensive but most of the tickets that are sold are usually sponsored by banks, NGOs and companies and most of the runners end up paying nothing or as little as 10,000 LL to participate so this is really not a big deal.
As for the Marathon itself, I really don’t understand why anyone would attack such a beautiful and successful event, especially after the BMA got promoted to be a SIlVER Road Race by the International Association of Athletics Federation which is a major achievement noting that there are only 26 other exclusive silver races in the world.
This is what I wrote last year about the same topic:
I love the Beirut Marathon and everything it stands for. I look forward to it every year and I try to promote it in the best way possible as I truly believe it’s a great sporting event that all Lebanese should take part in. It takes a lot of time, effort and dedication to organize successful marathons one year after the other and to attract more people, and the Beirut Marathon Association has managed to do all that and more. Moreover, BMA’s president May El-Khalil is an inspiration to many in Lebanon and around the world and she is one of the key reasons behind Beirut Marathon’s success and I highly respect and admire this lady.
The participants are running for unity, fun, glory, achievement, promoting wellness and healthy living, for causes and charitable organizations and more importantly for the benefit of Lebanon and all the Lebanese. Every year, we have new causes to run for, inspiring runners to look up to and new challenges to overcome.
The Beirut Marathon is something we should be proud of and take part in or at least encourage if we don’t like to run or walk.
The BMA has nothing to do with the garbage crisis but it’s a good occasion to spread awareness on this issue as well as others. If you don’t like running or think it’s a silly event, there’s no need to bash it and call it useless especially that it’s one of the very few things that still brings people together in Lebanon. We run for fun, for causes, for NGOs, for peace and most importantly we run together.
Last but not least, if you think that the Beirut Marathon is showing a fake image of Beirut, then you obviously haven’t been to Beirut recently.
40,000LL is really cheap when compared to what your receive at the end of the run (goodie bag), and also when compared to all material put at the service of runners during the race (water, wc, etc.)
One more thing, the Beirut Marathon fees are really low compared to international marathons : Berlin and Paris are around 100€ (for example).
Cheers.
Perhaps you should read this report about the corruption that surrounds it http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/245447
Also the criticism shouldn’t be at the event itself but at the people who participate but are not willing to move a muscle to protest issues like the garbage among others.
go read something useful son
The marathon is ripping people off. I don’t understand how you can see that 40 000LL is a fair price for the 10K race. I don’t mind the marathon’s concept and the fact that it reunites people. I have participated in it before, and it’s a fun event, that seems harmless. But I can’t blame people feeling ripped off when they see that it’s not really a non-profit event.
And I definitely can’t blame some people for feeling disappointed to see tens of thousands participating in this event, while they don’t make the effort to go down to the street to demonstrate against something that should matter to everyone, but instead just watch through their TV, from the comfort of their living rooms, their fellow citizens get locked up, beaten for coming down to the street on behalf of everyone else, and who are sacrificing a lot for the better of this country and all of us.
You obviously do not know much about marathons and races in general, registration fees for marathons around the world are much higher than that of the BMA, for example you’d have to pay 240$ to run the boston marathon, and 375$ to run the NYC marathon, so complaining about paying 30$ is absurd considering that you get a medal and goodies bag at the end not to mention all of the stations and organization is takes to put together such an event. Just because you’re upset about people not participating in demos doesnt mean you get to bash a successful sporting event that well meets international standards.
For those who don’t know, I’ve volunteered in Beirut Marathon for two years. I’m also a member of Agonistik for performing arts, which organized the Marathon’s Expo in 2012 if I’m not mistaken. I love the idea of the marathon as well as the fun races. I know how hard the organizers work, whether employees/volunteers/associations.. They do work a lot throughout the year. I was part of that and that should be said. There are many valid reasons to why I believe this marathon has become a marathon of shame. This event has become a business for corporate companies (universities included: that’s why you’ve seen Joseph Jabra, LAU president running.. he would run to Zionists to get more money for LAU’s debts and pockets), government’s municipality and state bank. Have you ever seen transparent figures about the event’s money income and expenses? Nope. The event depends on slogans like ‘run for peace’, ‘run against domestic violence’ , ‘run for equality’ , ‘run against illiteracy’, etc…, knowing that domestic violence is annually increasing, equality never existed in the first place and never will, illiteracy in Lebanon is increasing and is becoming more obvious day by day. They know that these slogans are just an advertising business tool, but they still do it. Yes the amount of participants is increasing. So is the number of sponsors, no?! Have any of you ever thought for a second about the number of humans who would love to participate but can not afford a 40,000 L.L. fee? That would be at least 100 times the number of this year’s participants. Moving on, the country has been dumped in trash for more than 3 months and now the threats of a health epidemic are more than ever. Who will sponsor the people when they run to hospitals that already do not accept them without payments/social insurance?! May El Khalil? Bilal Hamad? Joseph Jabra? Banks? Companies? Beirut Marathon Association? No one will. Because there’s no economic benefit from doing good. Peacemakers should refuse to run in any event approved/sponsored by this corrupted state. Why can’t the state which sponsors the marathon through its bank (Banque Du Liban), sponsor any initiative to solve the trash crisis? Also, no economic benefit to do so, for the warlords in state. Moving on, did you ask yourself why didn’t you see the sea while running? Or why didn’t you run near the river? I’ll tell you why. If you run there you will smell the sewage in the sea and the garbage in the river. Did you know that the ministry of interior, which once gave orders to riots to use violence against demonstrators, approved closing roads on Saturday noon in many areas so that May’s dudes can finish building the stage and other logistics? Do you know how many Sukleen trucks worked over the night on Saturday? I work at night and it’s the first time I ever see a truck in every street I walk in. I wouldn’t have said anything about it it was named Marathon May El Khalil or El Khalil Marathon or whatever name. But this is not Beirut’s marathon and you have no right to use the name of Beirut and fake up it’s image. No, let’s be real. Beirut is dirty. Beirut is not peaceful. The civil war is not over. We are living the civil war everyday but pretend it’s not there because we fear to accept the reality and prefer to live in denial. The same warlords that fucked up this country are now your leaders fucking up everything remaining. And they can easily sponsor an event like this and drug you to forget their corruption. Yesterday, every army man/woman I saw approved what I was trying to share. They know how easily this state can manipulate you. If you want to show a clean image of Lebanon let’s take the garbage out of our valleys, mountains, rivers, sea, streets, homes… Running for peace? What peace? You don’t run for peace in an event. You work your ass for it every second. If you want change you have to force it. You can’t just wish for it while running. This event has been organized for the past 10 years. Can you smell peace? Your religions are being used in negations for landfills ownerships by warlords. What peace? Sectarianism made you accept being dumped in trash for the sake of your father figure leader. What peace? A woman still can’t have her simple basic rights because you have idiots as ministers and MPs who have secured a life-time 8,000$ monthly salary excluding the robbery (from your own pockets). What peace? The state which protects whorehouses, drug dealers, thieves.. sponsored yesterday’s event and took it’s name “Beirut” Marathon. I’m positive though. One day we will have the real Beirut Marathon.
Critics should be aimed at the fact that Lebanese are willing to go in thousands to participate but never participate in protests that are aimed to demand basic rights be it electricity, water, etc.
But I guess we Lebanese are too cool for protests…
Lebanese people are also willing to go in thousands to attend concerts, basketball games, soccer games, new year’s celebrations etc.
With that kind of logic, why not also critique and boycott those events ?
I don’t care about the prices, for me it’s take or leave it.
But the traffic in beirut because of this event os unbearable. The day before the event and the marathon day. It’s bad enough beirut traffic is sooooo bad, the marathon simply makes it worth, with no prior warning about the day of the stage installation.